Peter J. Dyck, M.D.

The Peripheral Nerve Research Laboratory (PNRL), Under the direction of Peter James Dyck, MD.

The PNRL at Mayo Clinic has engaged in research on peripheral nerve and its diseases for the last 40 years. Initially these studies were done in collaboration with EH Lambert; but in recent years, they have been done in association with Phillip A. Low, P. James B. Dyck and Christopher J. Klein. The research focusing on human diseases can be categorized as follows:

1. Experimental neuropathies including permanent axotomy, lead intoxication, ischemia, regeneration, irradiation, and other.
2. Natural history, gene identification and treatment of inherited neuropathies - Charcot-Marie-Tooth (syndrome) types 1, 2 and other; hereditary sensory neuropathy (HSN) including congenital insensitivity to pain; HSN with dementia; inherited brachial plexus neuropathy; progressive muscular atrophy; spastic paraplegia and other.
3. Diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy - natural history, course, outcome, pathogenic factors, risk factors and treatment trials.
4. Diabetic multifocal neuropathies - natural history, underlying mechanisms and treatment trials.
5. Acute and chronic immune neuropathies - natural history, pathologic alterations, outcome and treatment trials. The diseases studied include AIDP (Gillian-Barré syndrome), CIDP and CIAP, multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN), chronic inflammatory multiple mononeuropathy (CIMM, also called MADSAM) or chronic inflammatory sensory polyradiculopathy (CISP).

Our laboratory did the first prospective controlled double-blind trials of CIDP

• Monoclonal Gammopathy of Unknown Significance with Neuropathy (MGUS neuropathy) - natural history, pathologic alterations and treatment trials.

Our laboratory did the first prospective double-blind trials of treatment.

Studies of Other Approaches for Evaluations of Symptoms, Deficits, Disabilities and Outcomes in Neuropathy:

• using symptoms scores (e.g., NSS, NSC and other)
• using impairment scores (e.g., NIS)
• using composite scores of nerve conduction
• quantitative sensation testing
• disability scores

This laboratory has been a leading reading and quality assurance center for many multicenter trials.

The CVs of the investigators can be found on the Mayo Clinic and QST-S websites.